The Peterhead symbol stone is one of several Neolithic monoliths re-used by the Picts as symbol stones. It stands in a field on what may be cairn material at the north end of Glen Eagles and Glen Devon affording spectacular views down the glens. The stone is around 6 feet high and is roughly cylindrical in shape.

Peterhead Symbol Stone and Glendevon

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The Bewcastle Cross is an outstanding late 7th/early 8th century Anglo-Saxon cross standing 14 feet high. The cross head is missing, but the shaft is in a fairly good state of preservation and is inscribed with 6 runic panels.

St. Cuthbert’s Church and the Bewcastle Cross

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The Ballochmyle Walls are two large sandstone sheets which are literally covered with hundreds of Neolithic cup-and-ring markings and other designs and motifs. The walls were rediscovered in the late 1980s when the vegetation around them was cleared. This has perhaps had the unfortunate side-effect of accelerating weathering and vandalism of the surfaces.

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The rock outcrop at Vigdel, near Stavanger, Norway is approximately 3 square metres of heavily weathered Bronze Age carvings representing boats amongst other motifs. We scanned this panel as part of the Bergkunstseminaret 2002 as a demonstration of our outdoor 3D laser scanning expertise on heavily worn and relatively inaccessible surfaces.

The panel’s carvings are now less than 1mm deep in most places and almost indistinguishable except under the most oblique of lighting conditions.

Vigdel Bronze Age rock art

Our laser scan resolved all of the known detail on the carvings and provided suggestions of other unrecorded carvings.

Related Links

• Riksantikvaren - Bergkunstseminaret 2002

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The Rollright Stones, or King’s Men Stone Circle, are a famous group of megaliths located in Oxfordshire near Chipping Norton (OS grid reference: SP 2962 3088). The circle consists of 77 stones of heavily-weathered lichen-encrusted limestone blocks huddled closely together in a true circle appoximately 32.9 metres in diameter.

We were asked by the Rollright Trust to laser scan a feature carved into the inner face of the tallest monolith within the main circle. This feature was generally regarded as a shield, but opinions differed as to what decoration, if any, the shield might have.

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We were contracted by the Grainger Town Project to work with a local artist, Simon Watkinson, to create a replica of Earl Grey’s head for an installation at the base of the monument which would be lit with digital lighting.

Grey’s Monument towers 135 feet over the centre of Newcastle and, until recently, has been scaffolded for renovation work.

Simon Watkinson with Earl Grey’s head

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We visited All Saints Church in Sutton Benger, Wiltshire, and took the opportunity to record three pieces of sculpture and two wood-carvings within the church. The sculptural items include the famed Green Man or “foliate head”.

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Archaeoptics have completed the field work at Callanish stone circle, Isle of Lewis. The work, commissioned by Stewart and Emma Mitchell of the Callanish Blackhouse Tearoom, forms the core of a wide range of upcoming projects.

Mensi GS200 at Callanish

Scanning at Callanish

A recent article on the work is featured in The Hebridean.

Update 2nd August 2005: A new article on the work has been published in the Glasgow Herald. You can read the article on the Herald’s website.

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